[imc-st.louis] Petitioners Will Turn in Signatures for St. Louis Audit

[Fitzdon at aol.com]

Gateway Green Alliance/Green Party of St. Louis
P.O. Box 8094, St. Louis MO  63156
314-727-8554  E-mail: fitzdon at aol.com  www.gateway-greens.org

For immediate release: July 25, 2007

Contact: Don Fitz, 314-727-8554

Petitioners Will Turn in Signatures for St. Louis Audit

July 25, 2007. St. Louis, Missouri.  Petitioners will turn in at least 595 
sheets with at least 10,708 signatures requesting an audit of the City of St. 
Louis.  A press conference announcing the completion of the petition drive will 
be at: 

11:00 am, Wednesday, July 25, 2007, St. Louis City Hall, Tucker entrance

The request for an audit is made by City residents Percy Green II, Cris Mann, 
Jerry S. McCaleb, Susie Parker and Daniel Romano, who represent a 
cross-section of St. Louis.  Their letter to State Auditor Susan Montee requests the 
audit according to state law Section 29.230, RSMo.  The statute indicates that the 
number of signatures must total at least 5% of those who voted in the most 
recent race for governor.  That would be 7200 signatures.  

According to Green spokesperson Daniel Romano, "We wanted to make sure that 
we had 50% more required signatures.  If some signatures are thrown out, we 
should still have plenty."  The most common reasons for discounting a signature 
include a person not residing in the City, multiple signatures by the same 
person, a person not being registered to vote and the printed name not being 
legible.

Alice Fast, of the State Auditor's office in Jefferson City, noted that there 
are three phases in a request for an audit of a municipality.  After the 
Greens turn in the petitions, the State Auditor's office counts how many 
signatures appear.  This takes between a few days and a week.

Next, the State Auditor's office asks the local Board of Election 
commissioners to verify the signatures.  With close to 11,000 signatures, she estimates 
that this would be completed between the middle and end of August.  If an 
insufficient number are valid, those submitting the petitions would be given time 
to collect additional signatures.  

Third, once the Auditor's office is confident that the required number of 
signatures has been attained, it will begin assigning staff to begin the audit.  
A complete audit of a city the size of St. Louis should take several months.

"Some people are concerned that St. Louis will have to pay for the audit," 
Daniel Romano observed.  "But it is important to keep in mind that the City has 
not had a state audit for 21 years.  The 1986 audit uncovered over $9 million 
that was being misspent.  And that was for only one year.  The audit should 
make the City be more careful for several years.  This means that the audit will 
save much more than it costs."

The Greens began working on the audit petition in late 2006, when the City 
would not provide answers to questions concerning where childhood lead poisoning 
prevention money was being spent.  "It's good that we persisted for all these 
months," said Romano.  "All the City would say was that, despite the scandals 
concerning lead poisoning, it is making progress. We still have not received 
answers to questions we asked in September 2006"

Since then, several other groups and individuals have endorsed the audit, due 
to their concern with City finances. They include American Federation of 
Teachers Local 420, the Universal African Peoples Organization and the 
Organization for Black Struggle.  Several organizations will make statements at the press 
conference concerning the need for an audit.

-30-



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